The Dinosaur in the Room
by amandajbruce
Summary: Written for a writing prompt. The trio listens to an English presentation from Todd.


A/N: Okay, so when I came across this writing prompt, Todd was the first character that popped into my mind, and I had to do this. It just seemed like something he would do. The words for the prompt were: when in doubt, just add dinosaurs.

The Dinosaur in the Room

She heard a chuckle to her write, and she forced herself to continue staring straight ahead. If she looked over at Oliver, she was sure she would burst into hysterical laughter, and that would not be good. She had never hated having to sit in the front row more in her entire life.

Lilly was currently listening to Todd's oral presentation in English class, and she had not been this entertained in school since… well, since ever.

"Yeah, so he's like the tyrannosaurus. Except, I think a t-rex is a solo killer. He wouldn't have a whole ship of people doing what he tells them. And he wouldn't be able to steer the ship cause his arms are so short. But, he's the t-rex." Todd nodded his head at the class, and Lilly heard several people clear their throats, again.

As Todd picked his diorama up from behind the podium where he was standing, Lilly had to glance away for a minute to hold herself together. There was an entire battalion of small plastic dinosaurs, a pirate ship, and a strange rock formation in a lagoon. Lilly had to admit that it was creative. Oliver started to chuckle, but at the teacher's glare quickly turned it into a cough. A very loud cough. Lilly threw her water bottle at him and bit down on her bottom lip, hard. Luckily, he snatched it up when it hit his desk, so it did not disrupt the presentation too much.

"Oh, sweet niblets," Miley whispered behind Lilly. She could almost see the expression on Miley's face. Her head in her hands, Miley's lips would be pulled back in annoyance, her eyes glaring at Todd while everyone else in the class probably had tears in their own eyes from trying not to crack up. Todd had been giving his presentation for the last twenty minutes, and Miley was supposed to be next, but class was almost over.

"So, obviously, like I said before, the good guys are the plant eaters," Todd continued, motioning to the miniature triceratops off the edge of his painted lagoon. "But in the big fight, the biggest plant eater goes down hard against the t-rex." He moved the two figures to the center of the pirate ship that looked as though it was made from popsicle sticks and probably an entire bottle of glue.

One of Lilly's hands covered her mouth and her shoulders were shaking silently.

"He recovers though, because his lady dinosaur believes in him. She gives him a kiss on the cheek, and it's enough to get him back into the fight." A smile broke out across Todd's face as he moved a blue plastic figure onto the deck, and then had the triceratops and the tyrannosaurus figurines really go at it, complete with slashing and growling sound effects. He growled particularly menacingly when he had the triceratops ram the larger dinosaur, followed by a slight whimpering as the tyrannosaurus was dropped to the side of the ship.

Even Miley was fighting it now. Lilly heard a snort from directly behind her before a throat cleared, and she knew Miley was leaning forward trying to hide her expression just behind Lilly's hair. Lilly risked a glance at Oliver and discovered he was turned slightly away from Todd, toward Lilly, playing with the plastic wrapped around the bottle on his desk. Their eyes met, and Oliver's mouth started to turn up in a grin. He quickly looked back down and fought the laughter off.

"After the big fight, the t-rex gets fed to an even bigger monster than him. I've got the Loch Ness Monster here for that." Todd added a huge plastic figure of a long necked dinosaur with flippers. Lilly closed her eyes when she recognized her brother's name written on the bottom of it in permanent marker. Now, she knew just what Todd was talking about when he asked to borrow a couple of things for a "project."

"Then, the littlest dinos get to go back home to the mommy dino, and they all live happily ever after. Well, except for the t-rex, cause you know, Nessie has him. And, well, the biggest of the plant eaters, he forgets all about the littlest dinos after a while, so maybe that isn't happy either. But the little ones get to grow up to be big lizards." Todd looked at the teacher triumphantly, but no one in the class moved a muscle. "The end." He added.

Someone at the back of the room started to clap, but stopped when the teacher's hand flew up like a guard at a crosswalk. "Todd, what was the overall theme of the story?" she asked him, one eyebrow quirked.

"Oh, right. All baby dinosaurs have to grow up. They can't help it. Cause until you grow up, you don't get to do all the things big dinosaurs do."

"Oh, my goodness," Oliver muttered under his breath.

"Thank you, Todd. That was a very interesting analysis."

"So, I got an A?"

"You got a C."

"But…"

"There are no dinosaurs in the book, but I see that you did understand the story, sort of, so C… plus."

Todd nodded his head and remarked, "Cool." The rest of the class burst in to applause and cheers as he took his seat.

When the bell rang just a few seconds later, Lilly finally allowed herself to dissolve into giggles, and Oliver shot out of his seat faster than Miley could say, "Thank God."

In the hallway outside, Todd was surrounded by the guys in the class. While Miley headed to her locker, Lilly and Oliver paused to see just what they were all talking about.

"Yeah, I was nervous," Todd was saying to a boy in front of him.

"Why did you use dinosaurs?" Oliver asked, trying to push through the people in front of him.

"Yeah, didn't you think you would get in trouble?" Lilly added, still trying to catch her breath from the giggle fit she had on the way out of the room.

"I was nervous," Todd repeated.

Lilly looked over at Oliver, confused. "But, dinosaurs?" she asked again, aiming her question at Oliver more so than anyone else.

"Anytime I have to baby-sit my little brother, my dad always says, when in doubt, add dinosaurs. So, that's what I did." Todd shrugged his shoulders and walked away.

"That is so like Todd." Lilly shook her head, chuckling to herself.

"Is it weird though that I completely understood his entire presentation?" Oliver questioned her as they made their way over to Miley.

"No, I did too. Except for that one dinosaur that he threw over his shoulder." Lilly leaned against the locker next to Miley's. "That one I didn't get at all."

"Oh, I think that one was supposed to be the first mate when the Captain was mad at him," Oliver informed her quickly.

"Yeah, but isn't he at the end of the book too?"

"I don't know. Never read it."

"Didn't you see the movie? They're exactly the same."

"Oh, yeah, then it's definitely the first mate. Todd probably just forgot he threw him back there."

"What are you two talking about? That whole thing was insane! It made no sense at all!" Miley slammed her locker shut and looked at her two best friends as though she thought they were even crazier than the presentation. "There are no dinosaurs in Peter Pan," she added crossly.


End file.
